BOOK XVIII. \xi\-. 111-115 



from Cumae to Capua. — Alica is made from ' zea ' 

 which \ve liave already called by the name of ' seed '." § 82. 

 Its ^ain is pouiided in a woodcn mortar so as Reeipefor 

 to avoid thc hardncss of stone grating it up, the 

 motive power for the pestle, as is well known, being 

 supphed bv the laboiir of convicts in chains ; on the 

 end of the pestle there is a cap of iron. After 

 the grain has been strippcd of its coats, the bared 

 kernel is again broken up with the same implements. 

 The process produccs three grades of ahca — very 

 small, seconds, and the largest kind which is called 

 in Grcek ' select grade '. Still these products have 

 not yet got their wliiteness for which they are dis- 

 tinguished, though even at this stage they are pre- 

 ferable to the Alexandrian alica. In a subsequent 

 process, marvellous to relate, an admixture of chalk 

 is added, which passes into the substance of the grain 

 and contributes colour and fineness. The chalk is 

 found at a place called White Earth Hill, between 

 Pozzuoli and Naples, and there is extant a decree of 

 his late Majesty Augustus ordcring a yearly payment 

 of 200,000 sesterces from his privy purse to the 

 people of Naples as rent for this hill — the occasion 

 was when he was establishing a colony at Capua ", 

 and he added that his reason for importing this 

 material was that the Campanians had stated that 

 alica could not be made without that mineral. (In 

 the same hill sulphur is also found, and the springs 

 of the Araxus which issue from it are efficacious for 

 improving thc sight, healing wounds and strengthen- 

 ing the teeth.) 



A spurious alica is manufactured chicfly from AduiieraieU 

 an inferior kind of zea growing in Africa, the ears ' 

 of which are larger and blacker and on a short 



261 



